Republicans Just Accidentally Killed Their Own Scam Tax Bill After Declaring Victory

Republicans Just Accidentally Killed Their Own Scam Tax Bill After Declaring Victory

In their rush to screw over the American people (those that aren’t ultra-wealthy anyway) with their tax reform legislation, Republicans in the Senate may have made an error that could sabotage their own bill.

As they rammed this bill through without any bipartisan efforts, deliberation or hearings, in the cloak of night, they may have accidentally killed the bill in the process (let’s hope so). By removing the corporate alternative minimum tax, they may have failed to cut taxes for the wealthy quite as much as they had planned. NY Mag explains:

Republicans originally intended to abolish the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). But on Friday, as the clock was running out, and money running short, Senate Republicans put the AMT back into their bill. Unfortunately for Mitch McConnell, they forgot to lowerthe AMT after doing so.

This is a big problem. The Senate bill brings the normal corporate rate down to 20 percent — while leaving the alternative minimum rate at … 20 percent. The legislation would still allow corporations to claim a wide variety of tax credits and deductions — it just renders all them completely worthless. Companies can either take no deductions, and pay a 20 percent rate — or take lots of deductions … and pay a 20 percent rate.

The author goes on to explain the two major implications of this mistake:

…The Senate is almost certain to have to vote on it again, meaning there’s still a chance for us to kill it completely, especially if Doug Jones wins the Alabama Senate race next week and replaces Republican Luther Strange.

Secondly, the Republicans are going to have to go back to the negotiating table with themselves in order to find a new way to pay for this monstrosity, including perhaps including some of the more appalling House GOP ideas for paying for it, like taxing graduate students.

These people suck so bad at government that they may have killed their own bill. In retrospect, their stupidity may be what saves us from this awful piece of garbage they call legislation.